Give Peace a Chance? Don’t, Mayor Urges

A spokesman for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Wednesday excoriated Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) for first removing, then rewriting a state budget provision to let the cash-starved city tap into port district funds.

“He has been extremely difficult to work with, an obstructionist and, in this case, has been working 180 degrees against the interests of the city of San Diego,” spokesman Paul Downey said.

“He screwed the city. . . . We’re telling everybody here that they should think twice about voting for him,” he said.

Peace shot back: “I like Maureen O’Connor. I honestly like Maureen O’Connor. I’m one of the few people who like her. The things I like about her are what other people don’t like about her.”

The latest exchange highlights a growing animosity between San Diego city officials and Peace, who has sometimes blocked city-backed measures because he says they are unfair to cities in and around his South Bay district.

Such was the case over a clause in the state budget that would have allowed San Diego and other large cities--Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland--to ease their fiscal ills by tapping into the reserves of their port districts. The San Diego port district has $25 million in its reserve that is not committed, a spokesman said.

The idea was actually suggested to legislative leaders by O’Connor earlier this summer, when she visited Sacramento with other California mayors. As the budget deal was shaping up, San Diego would have been eligible to grab an extra $4 million from the port, offsetting about 23% of the $17.5 million it would lose elsewhere from the state budget.

But Peace had that provision yanked because its wording gave money only to “charter cities” like San Diego and Chula Vista. He said it wasn’t fair to the three other municipalities that control the port--Imperial Beach, Coronado and National City.

Peace said he and other members of the San Diego legislative delegation had agreed among themselves to wait until January to come up with a formula for port funds to put into next year’s budget. The plan enraged O’Connor and City Manager Jack McGrory, who tagged the move as “irresponsible and disgusting.”

McGrory had maintained that the port cities had already agreed to an equitable way to divvy up the money. But Peace said when the city failed to produce the formula, he had his own inserted late Tuesday in a budget bill. Peace’s plan requires all of the cities--as well as the port district--to sign off on how the reserve dollars will be spent.

Also late Tuesday, Peace’s aide said that the lawmaker had demanded and McGrory had agreed to send a written apology. Peace said Wednesday he knew nothing about the demand for a written apology.

In his criticism of Peace, Downey said it was the lawmaker who should apologize because he “potentially cost the city $4 million and he still may cost us $4 million if we can’t get the port to go along with it.”

Downey said Peace “consistently puts his animosity toward (O’Connor) before the (interests) of the citizens of San Diego . . .

“Maybe he has trouble dealing with a woman as an elected official,” Downey said. “Who knows what his problem is? But what he did this week is inexcusable. . . . It wasn’t like some guy from Fresno took us out and was going to protect his own area. It was our own delegation that took us out” of the budget bill.

Downey also urged voters to think hard before casting their ballots for Assembly members Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) and Mike Gotch (D-San Diego) because they also went along with the changes on the port funding. Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon), who is not running for reelection, also went along with the change.

Peace--who himself wrote a letter of apology to Gov. Pete Wilson over the weekend for calling the governor an obscene name during a late-night committee meeting during the weekend--said Downey’s comments were sexist.

“Does Maureen O’Connor have a problem with me because I’m a man?” he asked. “I mean, it’s silly. I have carried more legislation to bring more money to that city and that county than the whole rest of the delegation, combined.”

Peace said O’Connor and San Diego officials are angry because he moved to protect the other cities in the port district. “They can’t shove something down the South Bay’s throat,” he said. “Dede Alpert represents those cities, I represent those cities.

“We don’t represent the elected officials,” he said. “We represent the people. Just because the City Council or a mayor has a different opinion, it doesn’t mean we’re going to hop to it. We have to do what’s best for the people.”

Peace said that O’Connor is angry at him for his opposition to the proposed TwinPorts airport at the border. The lawmaker is an outspoken opponent to the plan, and during this legislative session worked to block a proposal by the City of San Diego to take control of the county’s air pollution control district--the agency that would represent the regulatory hurdle for building the airport.

“We don’t want the city to get its hands on that (the district) to support TwinPorts,” Peace said.

Peace also said that the latest criticism from Downey may be misplaced energy. The lawmaker said he believes giving cities access to port monies is ultimately unconstitutional.

“I didn’t stab the citizens in the back. I tried to be fair to the citizens of all the cities I represent, as well as the port district of San Diego,” said Alpert.

“This was a terrible year, it was a balancing act, we did a lot of painful things and I think I can stand up and say I did the best I could,” she said.

Bentley, Gotch and Alpert could not be reached for comment Wednesday.